This invention relates to dispensers for material which is in the form of a coherent body and is to be applied locally or topically to a selected area of a surface. More particularly, the invention relates to dispensers of the type described including a container for the coherent body and an applicator for transporting quantities of the material therefrom to the selected surface area to which the material is to be applied. In a still more specific sense, the invention is directed to portable, e.g. hand-held, dispensers in which the applicator is manipulable by the human hand.
The term “material in the form of a coherent body” refers to materials that are not in a free-flowing liquid state or condition, but are able to retain their shape as a contained mass or body in a tub or receptacle against gravitational force, though they may be relatively soft, pasty or otherwise pliable and are able to be picked up by an applicator drawn across a surface of the mass or body. Non-limiting examples of such materials are lipsticks and like soft, pasty but semi-solid formulations, and compressed powders.
In its broader aspects, the invention embraces dispensers for a wide variety of products and uses, including, without limitation, materials employed in arts and crafts work for application to paper, wood, metal, plastic, etc., as well as therapeutic and cosmetic materials for application to the face or skin, e.g., lip colorants, eye shadows, blushes, concealers, mascaras, medical ointments and treatments, etc. For purposes of specific illustration but not limitation, detailed reference will be made herein to containers and applicators for lip cosmetic products such as lip colorants.
One of the most popular and most used forms of cosmetics is the lipstick. It is a soft mass of a colorant in stick form applied to the lips. Because it is applied to the soft flesh of the lips, softness in the formulation is an important criterion. Various agents and emollients are added to the wax base to assure smooth and easy application.
Owing to this important and necessary attribute, lipstick in stick form may break easily in the application process. Therefore, to insure structural stability and strength, the stick diameter commonly has a diameter of about one-half inch, although the diameter may vary to a greater or lesser extent. While some lipsticks are considerably smaller in diameter, they suffer the disadvantage of harder formulation and thus lose the efficacious and desirable attribute of the larger diameter. On the other hand, the larger diameter, though generally used and accepted, has the disadvantage of being difficult to clearly delineate the outer edges of the lips. While manufacturers mold a variety of stick forms with sharp edges and perimeters, these edges disappear quickly in use and the stick end becomes a rounded mound with no ability for sharp definition.
Users have tried to solve this problem by employing a small artist brush to edge the lips. They cover the large area of the lips with the stick and then coat the brush from the stick and finish the application by lining or outlining with the brush. This solution, however, is unsatisfactory, owing to the need, first, to find a brush, and then to cover the bristles when not in use; moreover, the brush is not readily portable. To meet the need thus presented, some commercial producers have provided a small brush with a covering cap that could be carried in the purse; but this expedient gives the user four parts to deal with: the lipstick and cap and the brush and cap. Most often these components are not sealed from the air and are therefore subject to drying and a decrease in fluidity and effectiveness.
Another form of lip color applicator currently commercially available is the pencil, a small diameter lip colorant encased most commonly in wood but also in some instances in plastic or metal. A disadvantage of the pencil is that (as in the case of stick-form lipstick) the tip quickly rounds off and loses its point in use. Moreover, because the “lead” of the pencil is an exposed and unsupported body of cosmetics formula, the “lead” breaks easily and often, and it is most difficult to keep a point. No successful sharpener has been devised to sharpen a soft formula encased in the hardness of wood or plastic; one or the other suffers, and most often it is the lip colorant, which breaks. In the case of double ended pencils that offer a large diameter colorant at one end and a small diameter colorant, for lining, on the other, the formulation of the small diameter colorant has to be relatively hard (with reduced efficacy of application) to minimize breakage of the exposed and unsupported point. In addition, no stick of a lip color can match the sharpness or precision of a brush.
Similar problems have been encountered in the case of other cosmetics products that may be applied in the form of a stick or pencil, such as eye shadows, eye liners and brow liners, as well as creams and powders.